Tufted carpet is sold in large volumes every year, much of which is sold to replace old carpet. Most components of tufted carpet are not biodegradable and recycling used carpet has long been desirable to avoid disposal of used carpet in land fills and the like. Furthermore, because carpet is a high volume, and often, low margin, product, lowering manufacturing costs is desirable. Carpet recycling however, has often been too complicated and costly and therefore, impractical.
Carpet generally comprises yarn, a tufting primary into which the yarn is tufted, a secondary backing, and a binder, normally latex, which bonds the yam, tufting primary and secondary backing together. The yarn is typically nylon and can be in the form of cut pile or loop pile. Cut pile carpet is made of short cut lengths of yarn and loop pile carpet is made of long continuous lengths of yarn. The tufting primary is typically a thin sheet of woven polyester or polypropylene material and the secondary backing is usually jute, woven polypropylene, or polyvinylchloride (PVC) sheet.
One known method of recycling includes shredding the entire carpet and either using the shredded carpet for something other than manufacturing carpet or separating the carpet components after shredding such as in a cyclone. Another known method of recycling carpet is to simply shave the yarn off the tufting primary and secondary backing. These known methods, however, are either too complicated and expensive, or are not effective in recycling all the recyclable components of carpet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,473 to Hagguist et al. discloses a system for separating the components of carpet including a combination of mechanical, hydraulic, chemical, and heating means. While this system may effectively separate carpet components, implementing it is very complicated and costly.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a relatively simple and economic system for reclaiming the components of carpet and recycling the reclaimed components back into the same components in newly manufactured carpet.